Mark's Pick: Giants
Why was this surprising? First, it actually came out after being shown at E3s dating all the way back to when they were held in Bedrock. That was a nice surprise. Second, Giants is actually quite a lot of fun to play, which is surprising as hell. Most of the time when a game slips release date after release date, when you finally get your hands on it, you feel like you spent your time waiting in the Doctor’s office. I waited for this? Fifty dollars just to bend over while the Doc snaps on the rubber gloves? Gee, thanks. But Giants wasn’t like that, fortunately. The three sides all offer a different playing experience, Giants really is funny (a rarity in the all to serious world of computer games), and it’s a game with superior graphics. I don’t like the lack of a save and as Tom pointed out in his Shoot Club, the multiplayer is severely unbalanced, but otherwise Giants is a delightful surprise.

Tom's Pick: Virtua Tennis
Mark reminded me that we're a web site about PC games, so we're supposed to choose PC games for our Quarterlies. I responded by yelling "You're not the boss of me!" over and over several times. Besides, can't you run Dreamcast games on a PC with some sort of emulatory kind of thing? There. See? Besides, Virtua Tennis was such a surprise that I routinely forget what platform it runs on. It is a rare game with a nearly transparent interface. It's a riveting multiplayer game. In less than five minutes, a novice can sit down and play against a veteran with a reasonable expectation of being competitive. Even a guy like me who doesn't know the first thing about tennis -- a guy who said, "A tennis game? Really? Come on!", when he was told that it was a must-buy -- can get sucked in. But what's most suprising is that after playing for a while, you'll come to realize that it's really just a fancy version of Pong. And that doesn't detract from it in the least. Okay, no more Dreamcast games from me. I promise.

The Most Surprising Game of 2000